Fresh from their ridiculous set at the Laneway Festival in Melbourne over the weekend, Glass Animals stormed Melbourne Town Hall losing no fans.
Opening the Wednesday night shindig was local lad Lanks and there couldn’t have been a more perfect pairing. There is a reason why he cops the accolades he does and although the acoustics of the venue cause his tracks to lose some of their stunning intricacy, the set was beautiful nonetheless.
With the headliners hitting the stage, the energy in the room rose spectacularly and just a few bars into opener “Life Itself” the crowd was deafening (and not just because I moronically forgot my earplugs…) Being from Melbourne, it’s not often you experience a completely enthusiastic crowd such as this, everyone’s way too cool, but something about Glass Animals just seems to bring it out. Hearing the crowd call out ‘but I look fantastic’ louder than I’ve ever heard set the tone for the evening.
Rolling through their set with genuinely no lows, the quartet seamlessly moved from song to song- that was until drummer Joe had an issue with his kit and in the interim frontman Dave teased an acapella song, only to have the kit fixed in the nick of time to play “Youth” (must admit, a little disappointed we missed out on what I am sure would have been an entertaining acapella rendition.)
What’s stunning about Glass Animals is how different their two records are, yet how well they’re transitioned live, moving from record to record. The show feels like a complete piece rather than two halves.
Unsurprisingly “Gooey” was received best, but “Agnes” was the true highlight. Starting off with a small hitch – Dave’s dramatic leap onto the kick drum caused yet more problems (‘Oh no! What have I broken?’, utterly sheepish). Undoubtedly the best track on the record, this was vehemently reinforced.
Closing with an encore of “Pools” and “Pork Soda”, the group appeared genuinely chuffed with the reception- and righty so. Melbourne definitely has a thing for Glass Animals, which if we’re lucky, means we’ll be seeing them return plenty in the years to come.
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